Being close to or associated with a legend can means that a
person's identity gets lost or is seen as part of the supporting
cast for someone else's life. Coretta Scott King did not seek the
limelight, especially after her famous husband, Reverend.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. She is a
great American in her own right -- living proof that behind
every great man there are great women. An intelligent,
thoughtful person, she was a powerful force behind Dr. King and the
Civil Rights Movement.

Born a farm girl in Alabama (1927), she knew the pains and
challenges of segregation. While white students in this
community were provided bus rides to nearby schools, she and her 2
siblings were forced to walk five miles a day and attended a
one-room school. Her mother, Bernice (McMurray) Scott, gave
Coretta the gift of music. In high school, she studied trumpet
and piano.

She left her humble roots and came to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to
attend Antioch College in 1945. She was already a civil rights
pioneer -- she was one of only 6 African American students there at
the time. She aspired to be a teacher and musician.
Racism and discrimination presented themselves as formidable barriers.
Acting with the integrity and determination she would show all her
life, she did not let these obstacles stop her.

When she reached the student teaching part of her college experience, the local
schools would not accept an African American teacher. She was
unable to get help from the college, even having an appeal turned
down by the college's president. She was forced to do her
complete her student teaching at the Antioch Demonstration School.

Coretta was a civil rights leader all her life. At Antioch,
she joined the local chapter of the NAACP, and the school's Race
Relations and Civil Liberties Committees. She loved classical
music. Years later, she still talked about a high school music
teacher that profoundly influenced here, Miss Olive J.
Williams. Coretta earned a B.A. in music
and education and was awarded a scholarship to study concert singing
and the violin at New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
It was here she met Martin Luther King.

Speaking about that period of her life, Coretta said:

"I
always believed that there was a purpose for my life, and that I had
to seek that purpose, and that if I discovered that purpose, then I
believed that I would be successful in what I was doing. And I
thought I had found that purpose when I decided that music was going
to be my career -- concert singing. I was going to be trained as a
concert singer at the New England Conservatory of Music. I studied
voice the first year, and after I met Martin and prayed about
whether or not I should open myself to that relationship, I had a
dream, and in that dream, I was made to feel that I should allow
myself to be open and stop fighting the relationship. And that's
what I did, and of course the rest is history."

She chose to take on the role of a supportive wife after her
marriage to Dr. King, though she never abandoned her conviction and
activism for civil rights. She was a powerful force in Dr.
King's life and a partner in his work. She kept up on her
music, often giving concerts at marches and rallies. She
traveled and marched alongside her husband. When Dr. King was
unable to give speeches, she would speak.

In 1955, she had the first of the couple's 3 children, Yolanda (Yoki),
born 2 weeks before the Montgomery Bus Boycott. As the
Kings became leaders for the cause, their life became more
dangerous. The south was a violent place, full of racial
discrimination and hatred. One night, January 30, 1956, while
Dr. King was out speaking at a church; the King residence in
Montgomery, Alabama, was bombed
while Coretta and baby Yolanda were home.

She learned to be careful
and look out for the safety of her family and her husband.
Perhaps this is one reason why she tended to stay out of the
public's eye as her husband increasingly became a national leader of
the Civil Rights Movement. In 1957, the Kings had a son, Martin Luther King III.
In the early sixties, living in Atlanta, Georgia, the Coretta and
Dr. King had two more children, Dexter Scott King (19610 and Bernice Albertine King
(1963).

A deeply spiritual person, she believed that war was wrong, and
spoke out against the Vietnam War 2 years before her husband, addressing a 1965 anti-war rally at Madison Square Garden in New York
City. She also worked with international peace and justice organizations.

Her world was shattered on April 4, 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
Never one to let obstacles get the best of her, Coretta accepted the
challenge of continuing her husband's work. She build The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change as a living memorial to her husband's life and dream.

Coretta Scott King published the first volume of her autobiography, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr.,
in 1969. True to Dr. King's legacy, as progress was made
in the arena of civil rights, she turned to the cause of economic justice.
In 1974 she formed and co-chaired the Full Employment Action Council, a broad coalition of over 100 religious, labor, business, civil and women's rights organizations dedicated to a national policy of full employment and equal economic
opportunity.

After the tragic death of her husband, she attending a annual commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to mark her husband's birth
each January 15. Largely because of her perservence and
effort, in 1986 a national holiday to honor Dr. Martin Luther King
was established each January. When President Ronald Reagan signed
the legislation establishing Martin Luther King Day, she was a guest
of honor.

She supported a number of important causes., joining the boards of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the National Organization for
Women. She was involved with numerous international human rights campaigns.
In the 1980's she joined the struggle against Apartheid, meeting
with Winnie Mandela while her husband Nelson Mandela was being held
as a political prisoner. She also spoke out against capital punishment,
the 2003 invasion of Iraq, advocated for women's rights, lesbian and gay rights and AIDS/HIV prevention.

An intellectual, scholarly woman; Coretta Scott King was awarded approximately 60 honorary degrees,
authored or edited several books, and became the namesake of the American Library Associationís Coretta Scott King Award,
which honors African-American writers and illustrators for outstanding and inspirational educational contributions in children's literature.

It is a mistake to think of Coretta Scott King as simply the wife
of Dr. Martin Luther King. She was his soul mate and an equal
collaborator in his legacy. When Dr. King's life was violently
struck short, she continued to carry the legacy,. We all have
roles we choose or are thrust in.

Coretta Scott King said it best when, speaking about
herself, she stated:

"I am often identified as the widow of
Martin Luther King Jr. Sometimes, I am also identified as a civil
rights leader or a human rights activist. While these designations
are factually correct, I would also like to be thought of as a
complex, three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood human being with a rich
storehouse of experiences, much like everyone else, yet unique in my
own way ... much like everyone else."

1943. Coretta's sister Edythe
became the first black student to enroll at Antioch College in
Yellow Springs, Ohio.

1947. Becomes the first African
American student to study education at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She
earns a bachelor's in music and education, then studies concert singing at Boston's New England Conservatory of
Music

1948. Coretta holds her concert
debut in 1948 in Springfield, Ohio, performing as a soloist with
the Second Baptist Church

June 18, 1953. Marries the
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in Marion, Alabama

November 17, 1955. Yolanda Denise is born in Montgomery,
Alabama.

January 30, 1956. A bomb is thrown onto the Kings' Montgomery
home, no one is injured. Coretta King is in the house with baby
Yolanda

October 23, 1957. Martin Luther King III is born in
Montgomery

September 1958. Coretta flys to New
York after Dr. King was stabbed by a mentally ill woman while
signing copies of his new book about the bus boycott, Stride
Toward Freedom

February 1959. Dr. King and Corett
visits India and study Gandhi's techniques of nonviolence as guests of Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru

1960. Dr. King is arrested at a
sit-in in Atlanta; Coretta, six months pregnant, is disconsolate
that King was being sent to a state prison. Senator
John F. Kennedy, then running for president, calls to reassure
her

January 24, 1960. King family moves from Montgomery to
Atlanta; King becomes co-pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church with his
father

January 30, 1961. Dexter Scott King is born in
Atlanta

1962. Coretta King's interest in
disarmament takes her to Geneva, Switzerland; she serves as a
Women's Strike for Peace delegate to the seventeen-nation
Disarmament Conference

March 28, 1963. Bernice Albertine King is born in
Atlanta

August 28, 1963. At the March on Washington, King delivers his "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln
Memorial

December 10, 1964. King receives the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo,
Norway

April 4, 1968. King is assassinated in Memphis,
Tennessee

1968. Becomes first woman to
address Harvard Commencement, Class Day. Dr. King had
accepted the invitation before he was assassinated in April.
Coretta spoke in his place.

June 26, 1968. Coretta King founds the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in
Atlanta

1969. Coretta Scott King Award is
established to honor inspirational and educational
contributions by African American authors

1974. Coretta forms a coalition of
over 100 religious, labor, business, civil and women's rights
organizations dedicated to a national policy of full employment
and equal economic opportunity' she Co-Chairs the Full
Employment Action Council

1979. A separate award for
illustrator is added to the Coretta Scott King Award.

March 27, 1979. Testifies for the first time before joint hearings of Congress,
advocating for a national holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

1983. Coretta leads an effort that
brings more than a half-million demonstrators to Washington, D.C., to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream"
speech

November 2, 1983. President Reagan signs
bill creating a national holiday on the the third Monday of January
to honor Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Reagan
actually opposes the holiday, making claims about the fiscal
cost

1985. Coretta and three of her
children are arrested at the South African embassy in
Washington, DC, protesting against apartheid

1985. Coretta asks Stanford professor Clayborne Carson to direct the Martin Luther King, Jr.
Papers Project, initiated in 1984 by the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.
The Project became a cooperative venture of Stanford University, the King Center, and the King Estate.

1986. Coretta ravels to South
Africa and met with Winnie Mandela; on returning to the United
States, she personally urged President Ronald Reagan to approve
sanctions against South Africa

January 20, 1986. First national celebration of the King holiday

1987. Coretta she helps lead a
national Mobilization Against Fear and Intimidation in Forsyth
County

1988. Coretta re-convened the
Coalition of Conscience for the 25th anniversary of the March on
Washington; in preparation for the Reagan-Gorbachev talks, in
1988 she served as head of the U.S. delegation of Women for a
Meaningful Summit in Athens, Greece

1990. Coretta is co-convener of the
Soviet-American Women's Summit in Washington, DC

January 14. Coretta receives an
ovation from 1,500 at a dinner celebrating her husband's
birthday

January 16, 2006. Celebrates King Day ceremonies,
watching on television, the 20th anniversary of the federal
holiday

Established 1969, the Coretta Scott King Book Award commemorates
the life and work of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and
honors Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination in
continuing to work for peace, social justice. It is presented
annually to an African American author and an African American
illustrator for an outstandingly inspirational and educational
contribution published during the previous year.

It founded with the New Jersey Library association and is now
overseen and administered in collaboration with the American Library
Association. In 1979, a separate award for illustrator was
added to the ceremony. For more about this prestigious award,
please see the Coretta
Scott King Awards page at the ALA Website.

2005 Winner

Remember: The Journey to School Integration by Toni
Morrison

2005 Illustrated Winner

Ellington Was Not a Street illustrated by Kadir A. Nelson, written by Ntozake Shange

2005 Honor Books

The Legend of Buddy Bush by Sheila P. Moses

Who Am I Without Him? Short Stories about Girls and Boys in their Lives by Sharon G. Flake